Printing an image on a fabric is generally performed by screen printing. In addition, where support for full color printing is necessary, it is conducted by a thermal transfer method using a color laser printer. In this method, a transfer paper made of a releasable paper having laminated thereon a heat-bondable resin layer on which a toner image is formed by use of a color laser printer, is brought into close contact with a fabric, followed by heating, thereby heat-bonding the resin layer holding the color image to the fabric.
The above-mentioned screen printing indispensably requires screen plate-making and toning so that it is unsuitable for orders of small lots and for orders with short delivery times. Furthermore, in the methods using a color laser printer, the entire surface including portions having no image, of the heat-bondable resin layer on the transfer paper, adheres to the fabric, so that it is impossible to transfer only a part that bears a design to be printed such as characters and logo marks as a sharp image onto the fabric.